Farmland Protection by Conservation Easement

     An agricultural conservation easement is a voluntary, legally recorded deed restriction that is placed on a specific property used for agricultural production. It is a flexible legal tool that enables landowners to permanently protect the agricultural, natural, scenic and historic values of their property from development and subdivision.

Check out the properties protected in WV.  Click here.

Property owners retain full use and ownership of the land.

    Because an easement is perpetual, it is transferred with the property when the property is sold, thereby ensuring permanent protection.

Program

Application

 Roane County Farmland Protection Board History

 In 2000, the West Virginia Legislature unanimously passed into law the Voluntary Farmland Protection Act.

Through this Act, the legislature declares that agriculture is a unique “life support” industry and that a need exists to assist those areas of the state which are experiencing irreversible loss of agricultural land.

The Act further authorized the creation of county Boards and the WV Agriculture Land Protection Authority to offer farmland protection through conservation easements.

In July 2008, the Roane County Commission authorized a resolution creating the Roane County Farmland Protection Board. 

The Commission affirmed that the agriculture community provides sources of agriculture products for the citizens of the state; enhances tourism, protects community values, institutions and landscapes which are inseparably associated with traditional farming; and controls certain development which is consuming land, topsoil and woodland of the county.

The Board is made up of farmers, conservationists and non-farmers and includes a County Commissioner and the Economic Development Authority Director, to offer a balance between protecting farmland and further county development.